Drafts by Dr. Ayusman Chakraborty
This article examines representations of Hindu ūrdhvabāhu ascetics in Western writings, through c... more This article examines representations of Hindu ūrdhvabāhu ascetics in Western writings, through close readings of fiction and non-fictional writings from the pre-colonial period to the present times. These ūrdhvabāhu ascetics keep one or both of their arms held perpetually aloft as part of their austerity. They thereby maim themselves in the process. Most Western writers not only mock this ascetic practice but also represent it as something evil. Yet Western imagination manifests a strange preoccupation with it, since Western writers return to this topic again and again. If this type of Hindu austerity is indeed irrational and iniquitous, why do Western writers frequently return to this topic? Why were ūrdhvabāhu ascetics stereotyped as evil in pre-colonial and colonial texts? Why is it chosen over other types of equally severe Hindu austerities to represent the Indians' need for Western enlightenment? This article tries to suggest answers to these questions
This article studies representations of Indian magic and wizards in five popular nineteenth centu... more This article studies representations of Indian magic and wizards in five popular nineteenth century Anglo-Indian novels. Such study allows us to understand how ordinary nineteenth century Britons envisioned Indian occult practices. Arguing that literary representations of Indian magic and wizards were essentially structured by the way Indian magic was conceptualized at both the metropolitan centre and the colonial periphery, this article considers the history of actual British encounter with Indian magicians in both Britain and India. It is found that in Anglo-Indian novels Indian wizards were generally stereotyped as malevolent beings, though favourable representations of wizards were not entirely absent. This article seeks to provide an explanation for this. It goes on to argue that, ultimately, representations of Indian magic and magicians in colonial literature reveal more about colonial ideology and public expectations in Britain, than about occult practices and their practitioners in India.
Book Reviews by Dr. Ayusman Chakraborty
The Criterion: An International Journal in English, 2024
A scholarly book on Gyanganj in English remains long-awaited. Especially since the myth is becomi... more A scholarly book on Gyanganj in English remains long-awaited. Especially since the myth is becoming increasingly popular in our times. Already, two English novels based on it have been published. These are Chandan Kumar Pathak's The Beckoning of Gyanganj (2014), and Divyank Rastogi's The Gyanganj Legacy (2021). However, despite the growing interest in Gyanganj, not much is available in print which may satisfy the curiosity of common readers. No academic study on Gyanganj has been published till now. The materials, which are at all available, are diffuse and lack scholarly analysis. What makes it even more inconvenient to many readers is the scarcity of English writings on the topic. Avadhoota Nadananda's Autobiography of an Avadhoota (part 1) is the only original book in English which describes
The Criterion, 2020
Review of Calcutta Nights by Hemendra Kumar Roy, Translated into English by Rajat Chaudhuri
Spring Magazine on English Literature, 2016
Papers by Dr. Ayusman Chakraborty
Journal of Religion and Society, 2024
Haridas was an early nineteenth century Hindu hatha yogi who reportedly survived interments for m... more Haridas was an early nineteenth century Hindu hatha yogi who reportedly survived interments for months at a stretch. His incredible feats had received wide publicity in Europe and America. Through a survey of nineteenth and early twentieth century writings on Haridas’s so-called ‘live burials’, this paper scrutinizes how the West tried to make sense of such a peculiar ascetic practice. It emerges that Western conceptualization of this ascetic practice was informed both by colonial discourse and power relationship as well as by the prevailing anxiety about premature burials. The paper reveals that religious and cultural practices acquire new meanings when lifted out of their proper contexts. By highlighting the ways in which Haridas’s samadhis were (mis)conceptualized abroad, it ventures into a hitherto uncharted territory. Of particular interest is the equation of the samadhis with human hibernation. The paper concludes by explaining why Haridas was subsequently forgotten in both India and abroad, and why he needs to be remembered in our present times.
![Research paper thumbnail of The Oriental Annual[s]: Colonial Representations of Indian life and Culture](https://attachments.academia-assets.com/98196469/thumbnails/1.jpg)
transcript: An e-Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies, 2022
This paper highlights how two early nineteenth-century British colonial writers Rev. Hobart Caunt... more This paper highlights how two early nineteenth-century British colonial writers Rev. Hobart Caunter and Thomas Bacon represented Indian life and culture in The Oriental Annual[s]. The Oriental Annual was the common title given to a series of seven volumes, which were published every year between 1834 and 1840. Combining anecdotes, short sketches and accounts of first-hand travel experiences of the writers, these volumes sought to present India and its people to readers back home in Britain. This paper shows how British colonial ideology shaped the representations of India and its people in these books. It specifically foregrounds how, in depicting India, both writers highlighted those aspects of Indian cultural and religious life that foreigners usually found disagreeable. It is argued that they did this to construct a vision of India which seemed to call for urgent reforms. This in turn helped them vindicate British colonialism in India, which both authors presented as being benign...
Swedish Journal of Romanian Studies, 2022
In recent times s, Indian ascetics have become pop icons due to the influence of visual entertain... more In recent times s, Indian ascetics have become pop icons due to the influence of visual entertainment media. Outside their country of origin, they are often negatively stereotyped to foster derogatory understandings of the Others and their cultures. In this paper, we will focus on representations of Indian ascetics. Starting with their early depictions in the memoir of the Transylvanian physician Dr Honigberger, we will examine their representations in Romanian newspapers and journals. In order to account for Romanian interest in ascetics from a faraway land, this paper will take into consideration the historical developments that led to the growth of European interest in them. Through a comparison between nineteenth century British (Osborne 1840) and East-European (Honigberger 1851, 1852) writings on Indian ascetics, we will try to understand whether conceptualization of Indian ascetics in Romanian-speaking territories differed in any way from that of the British colonizers in India. The paper will then move on to examine how the Romanian press conceptualized these ascetics. Evidences point to the fact that the Romanian press became interested in Indian ascetics, erroneously generalized as fakirs, from ca. 1900 to 1940. Analysing Romanian journal and magazine articles on Indian fakirs, which till now remain untranslated into English, this article will try to show how the Romanian press conceived of the ascetics of a faraway country. Our research methodology is based on text analysis, relying on a broader cultural perspective. For the purpose of this paper, we have selected a series of article samples, taking into consideration diversity in terms of regions (southern Romania and Transylvania), as well as the most relevant period (1906-1935). The interest in Indian sadhus and their doings basically emerged starting with the mid-nineteenth century. Yet over the following decades accounts have changed in terms of focus. While nineteenth century authors were primarily concerned with the physical aspects of their work, texts written in the first decades of the twentieth century suggest that journalists and writers generally looked at the more surprising and entertaining side of fakirs’ actions. Finally, the paper suggests why Romanian press lost interest in Indian ascetics after the 1940s.
Transcript: An e-Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies
In the late eighteenth century India, Begum Samru rose from a dancing girl to become a renowned m... more In the late eighteenth century India, Begum Samru rose from a dancing girl to become a renowned military adventuress and the ruler of a small semi-independent principality. One of the few female rulers in the country at that period, she is romanticized nowadays in popular histories and biographies. This article examines how three nineteenth-century colonial authors imagined her in their fiction. It shows that these provide counternarratives to contemporary romanticizations of the Begum. By comparing colonial depictions of her with contemporary ones, the article highlights how all such imaginings are informed by the authors’ confirmation biases. It finally argues for the need to look beyond the personal life of Begum Samru to fully appreciate the other aspects of her sterling career.
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities
A lot has been written on Thuggee and nineteenth century British operations against it. Instead o... more A lot has been written on Thuggee and nineteenth century British operations against it. Instead of delving directly into either of these two well investigated areas of research, this paper seeks to chart how several nineteenth century British writings exhibit a curious fear of Thug infiltration. Keeping in their minds some actual instances, early British colonial officials worried about the Thugs joining government services under them to survive and sabotage the anti-Thuggee campaign. This paper argues that this apprehension gradually developed into the fantasy of being reverse colonized by the Thugs. Late Victorian writers of fiction fantasized the Thugs invading England, or, what must have been more unnerving to them, converting the Britons themselves to Thugs. Using unpublished official records and literary works as sources, this paper tries to map how colonial anxiety of ‘Thug infiltration’ originated and later grew into the fantasy of reverse colonization by the Thugs. It also ...
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities
This article studies the reception of a popular 19 th century Anglo-Indian novel, Captain Philip ... more This article studies the reception of a popular 19 th century Anglo-Indian novel, Captain Philip Meadows Taylor's Tara (1863). This novel was once assigned a central position in the canon of Anglo-Indian novel. However, in the present age, it has been displaced from its position of eminence. This article contends that the present marginalization of Tara can be related to the change in the political and ideological orientation of readers. The ideological position of contemporary readers and critics make them approach colonial texts with a different mindset than their predecessors. This in turn affects the canon, modifying and altering it in the process. The present marginalization of Tara highlights how the changes in politics and practice of reading affect the canon formation of Anglo-Indian novels.
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities
This article examines how some colonial fictions intertwine historically unconnected Thuggee and ... more This article examines how some colonial fictions intertwine historically unconnected Thuggee and the Sepoy Mutiny of 1857 to make sense of Indian resistance to British rule. This was done by only a few writers. The article tries to find out what led these colonial writers to link the two unconnected events. To do this, representations of Thuggee and the Mutiny in the works of Captain Meadows Taylor, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, and Emilio Salgari are scrutinized. The article also considers other relevant works, like those by Sir George MacMunn, Hermann Goedsche, Jules Verne and Francisco Luis Gomes. It tries to ascertain whether a writer's nationality affected his conceptualization of the relationship between Thuggee and the Mutiny in any significant way. In doing so, it seeks to highlight how representations of Indian insurgency in colonial writings varied in accordance with the writer's nationality and outlook vis-à-vis British colonialism in India.
Transcript, 2021
In the late eighteenth century India, Begum Samru rose from a dancing girl to become a renowned m... more In the late eighteenth century India, Begum Samru rose from a dancing girl to become a renowned military adventuress and the ruler of a small semi-independent principality. One of the few female rulers in the country at that period, she is romanticized nowadays in popular histories and biographies. This article examines how three nineteenth-century colonial authors imagined her in their fiction. It shows that these provide counternarratives to contemporary romanticizations of the Begum. By comparing colonial depictions of her with contemporary ones, the article highlights how all such imaginings are informed by the authors' confirmation biases. It finally argues for the need to look beyond the personal life of Begum Samru to fully appreciate the other aspects of her sterling career.
Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Hmanities, 2021
A lot has been written on Thuggee and nineteenth century British operations against it. Instead o... more A lot has been written on Thuggee and nineteenth century British operations against it. Instead of delving directly into either of these two well investigated areas of research, this paper seeks to chart how several nineteenth century British writings exhibit a curious fear of Thug infiltration. Keeping in their minds some actual instances, early British colonial officials worried about the Thugs joining government services under them to survive and sabotage the anti-Thuggee campaign. This paper argues that this apprehension gradually developed into the fantasy of being reverse colonized by the Thugs. Late Victorian writers of fiction fantasized the Thugs invading England, or, what must have been more unnerving to them, converting the Britons themselves to Thugs. Using unpublished official records and literary works as sources, this paper tries to map how colonial anxiety of 'Thug infiltration' originated and later grew into the fantasy of reverse colonization by the Thugs. It also tries to link this to specific historical developments in that period.
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Drafts by Dr. Ayusman Chakraborty
Book Reviews by Dr. Ayusman Chakraborty
Papers by Dr. Ayusman Chakraborty